Kolkata, Aug 27 (PTI) Over a hundred female artistes associated with the Bengali film industry wrote to the state-run Tele Academy on Tuesday, seeking a safer workplace amid the outrage over the rape-murder of the doctor at RG Kar hospital. Among the signatories of the letter, which was also sent to the Eastern India Motion Picture Association (EIMPA) and West Bengal Motion Picture Artistes Forum, were director Aparna Sen, actors Rupa Ganguly, Swastika Mukherjee, Paoli Dam, Sohini Sarkar, Sohini Sengupta, Bidipta Chakraborty, Chaitali Dasgupta, Anuradha Ray and Shakuntala Barua, and scriptwriter Meghatithi Banerjee. "People of West Bengal, along with the entire nation, have been shocked to their core by the recent torture and murder of a woman doctor at her workplace - RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata.
In the wake of this heinous crime, it is heartening to see that the entertainment industry - theatre artists and technicians, musicians, makeup artists, dancers and choreographers, screenwriters and technicians are taking to the streets in fervent protests," said the letter. "However, it is indeed striking that some of us are yet to take a stand against the recurring incidents of sexual abuse/ harassment/ violence within our own workplaces. As women working in the Bengali film, web platform and television industry, we face various kinds of sexual abuse every day; as well as regularly hear of the rampant abuse faced by women, children and those of marginal identities,".